PullClean: Door handles as sanitizers

The handles on inward opening doors are a vector for bacteria because there is no way of physically interacting with them without using your hands and touching the same place as everyone else. This product does not solve this problem, but instead tries to insert itself into the users' task flow at precisely the time when their goals are focused elsewhere (on opening the door). This is a rude interruption and will likely annoy rather than encourage more sanitization. In the video (0:59), a woman sanitizes her hands then must immediately compromise them again to actually open the door.

I'd prefer to see a handle designed for safe operation by the elbows or feet so that the hands don't need to be compromised. Think of how a surgeon enters an operating room by pushing the door with their shoulder and their hands held up out of the way.

I am curious how this compares to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_copper-alloy_touc...

These surfaces have good properties and don't encourage any sort of resistances.

edit: I see Pull Clean is trying to get people to clean their hands more, but I also think it is not good to ignore an existing good strategy for eliminating germs in one of the dirtiest places (door handles) in a hospital. I am wondering how well studied this is and if it results in a cleaner environment in a hospital setting compared to installing the copper surface handles everywhere.

I also think that these kind of gels give a false sense of security, I have anywhere up to four different carers coming through this house on any given day using the stuff. And they do something that might be slightly medical in nature, then it's a quick squirt of the gel and hey presto no more tiny stinky biting things!

But that is absolutely NOT how they work, these gels are generally designed to be used AFTER washing your hands and only work if you rub them in for up to 30 seconds. But I would be surprised if many people knew that, *II only knew that because - and this is going to sound like total hyperbole - my life literally depends upon people washing their hands.

I think it's really interesting that when doctors, nurses or any other medical professionals come through they always wash your hands but carers always seem to rely on the magic gel. People need education as well as these tools, not instead of.

/Rant

Last time I visited a hospital, there were gel dispensers beside every single door, already. I googled and those are under $10 for twice the capacity of the PullClean... so 1 PullClean vs 20 wall-mounted dispensers?

I think they'd really have to have some studies showing the different placement really made an impact for hospitals to buy this at scale.

Is it just me, or is this a recipe for slippery sanitizer-covered floors after people bump into these handles and trigger the pump? (Whether deliberately, by opening the door with their backs with hands full, or inadvertently just walking around in a crowded corridor.)

Clever idea, but I think I would prefer automatic doors and conveniently located motion-sensing sanitizer dispensers. And as much as I like embedded software, I don't think it's particularly useful or worthwhile in something like this, with the exception of monitoring the amount of remaining sanitizer in individual handles.

Also, from what I've heard, hand sanitizers aren't great for you. Placing them on doors, encouraging (or perhaps pressuring) people to use them frequently, might do more harm than good. It would be vastly more practical and effective to strategically place motion-triggered sanitizer dispensers after doors, especially in patient rooms and on the way out of certain sections of the hospital.

It's respectable that you're thinking outside the box and looking to solve a real problem, but this needs more thought.

Here's a report[0] given to the Sheffield Trust Executive Group talking about cystic fibrosis, one of the recommendations they made included:

"... bactericidal copper touch plates on doors and handles... "

For much the same reasons as other commenters have pointed out, they have excellent antimicrobial properties. I'm moving into a new build at the moment, and we're using copper for the very same reasons. Being quadriplegic, infections are an absolute nightmare to get rid of so these things are going to be invaluable.

[0]:http://www.sth.nhs.uk/clientfiles/File/Enclosure%20I%20-%20C...

I didn't realize that I had to manually page through the slides at the top to understand the product. I scrolled down and had no idea what the product was. Might want to put that first instead of hidden on slide 4.

I get the sense that while well intentioned, the designer has not adequately observed a full range of health care activities typical in many modern hospitals. Those big swinging doors are big and swinging so that beds can pushed through quickly in an emergency.

Because emergencies can occur anywhere, [e.g. a few years ago my sister-in-law was a code blue in the CT-room -- and that's how the staff remembered her following her recovery], doors and walls and everything below a certain height must be designed for impact by a fast moving fully loaded hospital bed.

One of the reasons door handles are so big and bulky to begin with is that's where they get hit, and they get hit to prevent damaging the door. Hospitals place scrub sinks in alcoves and up high. Same with the typical hand-sanitizer stations.

The other concern with the design is that it creates places for bacteria to 'hide' from cleaning - the seams and hinges of the door handle that allow access for refills and that operate the dispensing mechanism. Of more concern is that these are places where a health-care worker will place their hands and that by incorporating these into an architectural specialty, they are not disposable and require ongoing cleaning.

Monolithic is good. Anything that requires manipulation should fit in an autoclave or be disposable.

I also think this product is attempting to solve the wrong problem, in the wrong way. Rather than try to insert another workflow step (as a previous commenter ably put it) why not focus on ways of preventing the contact with contaminants in the first place? After all, door handles are just one vector, and how many of the others can be converted into sanitizer dispensers?

I might be an idiot but... how about automatic doors? (that you don't have to touch)

You want some WiFi app thingie? Ok, link the automatic doors to the nearest gel dispenser and when the ratio of door opening/dispenser use gets too low, the door only opens after the dispenser has been used.

What about my carefully cultivated habit of not touching the door? If I change habits and start touching doors someday I'll mistakenly touch the wrong door. If I mistakenly touch the wrong door I'll start spreading The Disease.

I'm having a hard time remembering what it was but around this time last year I saw someone demonstrating a sort of gel like cover (similar to this http://www.amazon.com/Cyber-Clean-25055-Office-Pop-up/dp/B00...) at a startup weekend.

The idea was to cover door handles with it in hospitals etc and had received positive feedback from quite a few local hospitals if I'm remembering correctly. I'm not sure what happened to that project though. I like that solution much better than this though.

FDA approval / clearance is a nightmare. I think it took Vioguard 4+ years to get it for their UV-sanitizing keyboard. You need to be connected, funded, and/or patient.

http://www.vioguard.com/

Is there any empirical research showing that placing sanitizer in door handles (as opposed to next to the door, or in the hallway, or wherever- - most hospitals have sanitizer everywhere) has an increase in use - especially for caregivers?

Slightly related: I wish door handles, taps, bathroom flushes, up/down lift buttons etc. are mostly foot operated everywhere. There's really not much advantage of interacting with all these knobs with your hands.

These handles wont qualify under the Americans with disabilities act. It needs to be a lever now for the disabled.

Doors are a congestion area, and seem like exactly the wrong place to be doing something like washing hands.

Another solution in search of a problem. How about posts about truly interesting things like beneficial microbial populations etc. The days of "sanitizing" are rapidly coming to a close in the face of modern science.

Stinks, they will only let me buy a max of 10. I wanted 100... guess I'll have to look for something else.